📌 Note: Features marked with an * are available in our Political bundle. For more information on adding new features please see the add-ons page in your nation.
Table of Contents
Where to start (add/edit/view relationships)
Relationships can be added/edited/viewed on a person's profile. Go to People > click on a person's profile > select the Relationships tab.
In a profile, you can define relationships between people and organizations. You can track relationships between family members, colleagues, and organizations.
Here are some examples of relationships you can track:
Susan is Tom's parent.
Tom is Angela's spouse.
Angela reports to Janelle.
Angela and Janelle are employees of NationBuilder.
Janelle is an alum of Columbia.
Columbia Los Angeles Alums is a chapter of Columbia Alum Association.
Columbia Alum Association is a subsidiary of Columbia University.
Here you'll be able to add New Relationships and edit/view Current relationships.
Relationships between people
These relationships can only be created between one person and another person in your database.
Assistant to: Connect a person to the person they assists.
Assisted by: Connect a person to their assistant.
Child of: Connect a person to their parent.
Constituent of: Connect a person to their representative.
Friend of: Connect a person to their friend.
Manager of: Connect a person to their subordinate.
Mentee of: Connect a person to their mentor.
Mentor of: Connect a person to the person they mentor.
Parent of: Connect a person to their child.
Partner of: Connect a person to their partner.
Reports to: Connect a person to their manager.
Representative of: Connect a person to their constituent.
Sibling of: Connect a person to their sibling.
Spouse of: Connect a person to their spouse.
Student of: Connect a person to their teacher.
Teacher of: Connect a person to their student.
Once a relationship is created in one profile, it appears in the connected profile. For example, if you add a relationship to John's profile naming him as the parent of Jane, when you review relationships in Jane's profile you'll see that she is listed as the child of John. The relationships can be categorized as follows:
Organization: Assistant to > Assistant by
Organization: Manager of > Report to
Family: Child of > Parent of
Family: Sibling of > Sibling of
Family: Spouse of > Spouse of
Relationships between a person and an organization
These relationships can only be created between a person and an organization.
Alum of: Connect a person to an organization they were previously active in. E.g. a graduate and their alma mater.
Board member of: Connect a person to the organization for which they serve on the board.
Consultant to: Connect a person to the organization for which they serve consults.
Employee of: Connect an employee with their employer.
Member of: Connects a member to their membership organization.
Primary contact of: Connect a person to the organization for which they are the primary contact.
Resident of: Connects a resident to a residential organization (e.g. apartment building or neighborhood association).
Student at: Connects a current student to their school.
Candidate of: Connect the candidate to their committee.*
Treasurer of: Connect the treasurer to their committee.*
You can add relationships between a person and an organization from the organization's profile. The relationships are described slightly differently when added from an organization's perspective:
Alum: Connect an organization to its alum.
Board member: Connect an organization to its board member.
Employer of: Connect an employer to its employee. Can also specify employee's title.
Member: Connect a membership organization to a member.
Primary contact: Connect an organization to its primary contact.
Resident: Connect a residential organization to its resident.
School of: Connect a school to a student.
Candidate: Connect a committee to its candidate.*
Treasurer: Connect a committee to its treasurer.*
Once you create a relationship between a person and an organization, you can log a contact on both profiles. This allows an organization's profile to be a hub of correspondence with your nation.
For example, if you are applying for a grant from a foundation, you may speak to three different people. Your grant writer could speak to the grants officer in the morning, while your executive director speaks to the foundation's founder in the afternoon, and your program officer speaks with their VP of communication the next day. Since the grants officer, founder, and VP are connected to the foundation, all three contacts appear on the foundation's profile.
Relationships between organizations
These relationships can only be created between one organization and another organization.
Affiliate: Connect an organization to its affiliate.
Chapter: Connect a parent organization to its chapter.
Chapter of: Connect a chapter to its parent organization.
Organization partner: Connect an organization to its organization partner.
Parent company of: Connect a parent company to its subsidiary.
Subsidiary of: Connect a subsidiary to its parent company.
Filtering relationships
There are three ways to search for people and organizations based on relationships:
Relationship type: finds all profiles with a particular type of relationship. For example, find all parents.
Relationship to (with type): finds all profiles with a particular type of relationship to a particular profile. For example, find all employees of NationBuilder.
Relationship to: finds all profiles with a relationship to a particular profile. For example, find all profiles with a relationship to C.J. MinsterCheng.
You can also limit your search to people or organizations by toggling the view at the top of the page. Here is how I would search for all people connected to NationBuilder:
Within the People section, listings will include both people and organizations by default. You can limit your view to either People or Organizations by clicking either option to activate it. The page will automatically refresh to display your choice.
Note that relationship filters only include relationship types created as described above. Many other criteria are available to sort people based on their relationship with your nation (e.g. donors, volunteers, assigned to a particular point person).
Please note that relationships are not currently available for export.
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